Anyaoku, Williams supports Atiku's call for restructuring the country along regional lines

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A former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, and an ex-Chairman of the Nigerian chapter of Transparency International, Maj. Gen. Ishola Williams (retd.), on Wednesday, expressed their support for restructuring Nigeria along regional line, a call made by the former vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

Both Anyaoku and Williams believed the restructuring of Nigeria would facilitate stability and development.

According to The PUNCH, Anyaoku said,

‘‘I have called for the restructuring of the country since 2005 at the political reform conference. My most recent public statements on the matter were made in Ibadan School of Public Policy and Government last January and at Akure 40th Anniversary Colloquium of Ondo State on January 30.’’

The ex-secretary of the Commonwealth had, in February, canvassed the abolition of the 36 states in the country.

He spoke at a public symposium organised by the Nigerian Bible Society in Enugu State.

Anyaoku canvassed a return to the regional structure practised in the First Republic, with the country’s six regions forming federating units.

He argued that the current 36-state structure was unwieldy and very expensive.

Anyaoku said, “The present governance arrangement we have, with the country comprising 36 non-viable states, most of which cannot pay the salaries of their teachers and civil servants, is not the best.

“Rather, we should return to an arrangement, where the six regions will form six federating units.”

On his part, Williams said many Nigerians, who were concerned about the future of Nigeria, had expressed similar views in the past.

He added, “What former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar said had been clamoured for by many Nigerians in the past. Even President Muhammadu Buhari knows that Nigeria needs to be restructured so that there would be resource control.’’

According to him, it is in the light of the need to restructure the country that there are calls for constitution amendment.

Recall that on Tuesday, at the unveiling of "We all are Biafrans", Atiku Abubakar who chaired the occasion called for the restructuring of Nigeria.

Atiku said the country should be restructured in order to address the feelings of marginalisation by component units that make up the country.

“Agitations by many right-thinking Nigerians call for a restructuring and a renewal of our federation to make it less centralised, less suffocating and less dictatorial in the affairs of our country’s constituent units and localities,”  He said.


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